Sometimes when I’m trying to fall asleep I’ll hear a loud unexpected noise, but I don’t just hear it, I seem to ‘see’ a flash of colour in my eyelids. Does anyone else have this? What’s it all about?
I get this too…glad to see I’m not crazy. It’s exactly as you described, noises causing a burst of color. I guess it would be either the concussion causing a slight vibration on your eyelid, triggering some light response (like when you rub your eyes) that is easier to see in a dark room with your eyes closed, or your brain trying to figure out what’s going on through the ears, and somehow the signals get crossed?
I also get it, but not necessarily with a real sound. Sometimes when just nodding off I get what I can only describe as a burst of static in my head, which makes a sort of fizzing/crackling noise in my head and often a flash as well. Occasionally it’s also accompanied by the familiar muscular twitch you get when falling asleep, but rarely. I have no idea if the “brain static” thing is normal, or if I am suffering some kind of mini seizures… :dubious:
This could possibly be due to the phosphene phenomenon, seeing light even though no light actually enters the eye. It happens most commonly when pressure is put on the eyes (close your eyes and gently push on your eyelids and see for yourself) but random firing of cells in the visual system can cause it as well. When I’m awakened from a half-sleep by a sharp noise, I often feel a surge of adrenaline shoot through my body. This might trigger a phosphene.
It’s a form of synesthesia. The form I have myself, actually.
I sometimes see a dark circle when my alarm goes off. I told my doctor; he thought that was strange but didn’t pursue anything. Also, as we get older the phosphene thing seems to start up. Specialist said it’s nothing to worry about.
When I was young, I was playing around with my father’ stereo. I pushed a button and the speakers went WHUM! which was unfortunate, as I had inadvertently set the amp to full volume. At the same time as I heard the noise (which was so loud as to be painful) I saw a blue flash. I was afraid the speakers had sparked and shorted, but it wasn’t so. I guess this, too, was synesthesia, of a sort. At the time, my eyes were definitely open.
When my lamp is cools down as I lay down to sleep, it will give a little PING of contraction. That always makes me see a flash of a diagonal checkerboard pattern of light and dark squares.
Ditto what elfkin477 said, though I get it with more than just sudden noises.
Could be. Once in a great while I can see red noises with my eyes open.
I haven’t read the article I linked to too thoroughly, so I hope no one’s alarmed by anything in it; “neurological” is kind of a scary word. Scientists seem to think it’s a harmless brain difference, much like being left-handed instead of right. Left-handed people, especially left-handed women, are also far more likely to have it too, by the way. I think this form is less common than the letters/numbers-colors form, but more common than a few other types.
Hmmm. I was waiting to post since I was hoping for a real answer from someone that actually knew the facts. This is something that happens to me and I’ve always been curious about the root cause as well. I don’t think it’s synesthesia in this case (or at least not mine particularly).
So, this is my theory on it…I think you are seeing the blood vessels in your eyes (or at least the blood vessels in your eyes stimulating the cones and rods). When people are on hallucinogens they report seeing the ‘walls breath’, ‘things crawling’, etc. What’s actually going on is you are perceiving the pulse in the blood vessels in the back of your eyes. You are always seeing that, but when you aren’t high as a kite your brain filters them out. Also, the chemical that causes most hallucinations is closely related to the chemicals that are released when you are dreaming (serotonin, if I remember correctly).
Imagine the situation where this happens. You are lightly asleep and your brain is starting to go into dream mode, making it (potentially) more prevalent that you might perceive the blood vessels in your eyes. Then you hear a loud bang. When this happens to me, I usually feel a little rush of adrenaline, too, which bumps up your blood pressure stimulating the blood flow in your eyes. Also causing the brain to become more alert and try to perceive whatever it can about your current situation. Couple this with some of the stuff in previous posts about the phosphene phenomenon and the brain seeing what it wants… and all that adds up to seeing flashes of light.
That’s my theory at least. Like I said, I was hoping for an MD of Eyeballs to post with a real answer, but you were not that lucky.
So, it’s either that or your latent super powers are starting to manifest themselves…
Improvisor, The blood vessels would all “pulse” simultaneously, and the receptive fields in your eyes would likely eliminate whatever was happening inside your eye. Although, I have a very limited knowledge of the inner workings of the eye, so this might not be entirely accurate.
I recall that the audio and visual portions of the brain are linked, so the events in one area stimulate the other area. That is my WAG on why you can “see” a sound with your eyes closed.
The inverse question is: Can you “hear” a sight with your ears closed? I can’t completely close my ears, so I can’t give any examples.
Interesting. I just started Googling around and found this abstract. The important point being:
So it seems there is correlation between the two areas in brain and that the ‘sleepng flash’ of light would be created directly in the visual cortex itself and have nothing to do with the retinal neurons. Maybe just a loosening of the barriers between the parts of the brain as you fall asleep.
I wonder if this will reawaken. Anywho I get this a lot, if the room is quiet or the noise is constant, a sudden noise will produce a bright flash if my eyes are closed. Apparently some people see this and some don’t, there is speculation about whether it could be defective visual workings in the brain, making up by it by effectively borrowing some sense data from the ear and interpreting it into visual data.
(To whomever may be reading this, since I doubt that the OP is still following after 5 years.)
Yes, I’ve always had this. It happens when I’m in bed, in the dark, in the process of falling asleep, with my eyes closed. Any sudden sharp sound causes this. It doesn’t have to be loud at all, just any sudden and sharp sound. And I always see a white flash, never any other color.
One example: When you turn off the light (old fashioned incandescent bulb), as it cools it makes quiet little pinging sounds. In the days of incandescent lights, I would see a flash of light with these pings. Except I would see it with my eyes closed, so I thought it was actually the bulb flashing as it cooled or something, that made enough light to see through my eyelids.
So I always wondered what the physics of that phenomenon might be. Was there a backlog of excited electrons in the filament that didn’t discharge their photons as the filament cooled, then suddenly discharged them all at once, causing a sudden flash?
Also, when the house settles as it cools at night, with the attendant knocking sounds in the walls, I see flashes of light for that too.
This only happens when I’m sort of half-asleep. I’ve also had a long history of sleep paralysis. I wonder if those are related syndromes?
The thing that Colophon mentioned, where the sound is not real, is probably a form of exploding head syndrome. That is not really an explanation, because it is not known what causes it, and there is no known cure, but it seems to be harmless. I had it quite a lot for a while in my 30s, but it has gone away now.
Seeing a non-existent light wen hearing a real sound is, pretty much by definition, a form of synaesthesia, but that is not really an explanation either. I am pretty sure it does not have to do with seeing the blood vessels in the eye, though.
Well fucking don’t call it that, then, it’s very misleading ! 
Well, you know, technical medical jargon often does make things sound scarier than they really are. 
(Seriously, that does seem to be the accepted medical term.)